Designed to support “innovators developing prototypes or community projects to improve open science and research communication,” the eLife Innovation Program offers a mix of expert advice, presentations by guest speakers, collaborative workshopping, homework assignments, mentorship, and more.

Alice Fleerackers

Stefanie Haustein was scrolling through her feed when she stumbled on
it. [A tweet from eLife
Innovation](https://twitter.com/eLifeInnovation/status/1202204660398018562){target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"} promoting a program called "Open Innovation
Leaders." It promised design thinking, open communications, and
sustainability---all with only a two hour per week time commitment.
Intrigued, she clicked through.

<figure id="attachment_2700" class="wp-caption alignleft"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2700" style="width: 400px">
<img
src="https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Screen-Shot-2020-03-11-at-4.23.21-PM-300x288.png"
class="wp-image-2700" loading="lazy" decoding="async"
srcset="https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Screen-Shot-2020-03-11-at-4.23.21-PM-300x288.png 300w, https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Screen-Shot-2020-03-11-at-4.23.21-PM.png 590w"
sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" width="400" height="384"
alt="A tweet promoting Innovation Leaders" />
<figcaption>This tweet inspired Stefanie Haustein to give Open
Innovation Leaders a shot</figcaption>
</figure>

Three months later, Stefanie is five weeks deep into what is fast
becoming a favourite part of her work week. Designed to support
"innovators developing prototypes or community projects to improve open
science and research communication," the [eLife Innovation
Program](https://elifesciences.org/labs/b87d3cda/innovation-leaders-2020-meet-our-mentors-and-experts){target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"} offers a mix of expert advice, presentations
by guest speakers, collaborative workshopping, homework assignments,
mentorship, and more.

"The idea stemmed from running the eLife Innovation Sprint, a
collaborative hackathon where we bring together technologists and
researchers to develop open prototypes for open science," explains Emmy
Tsang, eLife's Innovation Community Manager and organizer of the
Innovation Leaders program. "We saw so many creative ideas for tools to
change the ways we do and share research, but most were not continued
beyond the event."

To help those creative ideas flourish, eLife started Innovation Leaders.
"We want participants to feel empowered and prepared to lead their own
open projects for open research," says Emmy. "We thought about what
achieving that would require---skills and training..., connections to
people \[who\] can help..., funding opportunities---and we hope to
provide all of those with the programme!"

Each week, the group meets via Zoom to discuss their projects and
receive training in everything from problem definition to vision
statement development. They also meet one-on-one with their
mentors---researchers, programmers, and others who have volunteered to
share their expertise with the innovators-in-training. All of the
materials, notes, and even recordings of the calls are [openly
available](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XxFbb5nO0bGI_juwe-5K94IajtaGKWPgit_wmYK83gQ/edit){target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"} so that others can learn from them too.

<figure id="attachment_2697" class="wp-caption alignnone"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2697" style="width: 840px">
<img
src="https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/stef-innovation-leaders-1024x406.png"
class="size-large wp-image-2697" loading="lazy" decoding="async"
srcset="https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/stef-innovation-leaders-1024x406.png 1024w, https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/stef-innovation-leaders-300x119.png 300w, https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/stef-innovation-leaders-768x305.png 768w, https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/stef-innovation-leaders.png 1436w"
sizes="(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px" width="840" height="333"
alt="innovation leaders discuss projects in a collaborative meeting" />
<figcaption>The Open Innovation Leaders program uses group calls to
inspire collaboration and idea exchange.</figcaption>
</figure>

"Emmy is doing such a fantastic job of preparing everything," says
Stefanie. "We have guest speakers every week. There's lots of content
and all of the materials are open for anyone to reuse." The assignments
are very helpful, even if they are quite a bit of work. "I really like
the whole setup of having weekly calls and doing a little homework to
push yourself to move forward," she says. "It almost feels like I'm back
in school!"

But the best part of the program, Stefanie says, is the mentorship
aspect. By a stroke of coincidence, she was paired with [Lauren
Maggio](https://www.usuhs.edu/profile/lauren-maggio-phd){target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"}, an Associate Professor of Medicine at
Uniformed Services University and a ScholCommLab collaborator.

"I meet with her every two weeks for half an hour to an hour, and I ping
her in my [notes
document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SmcHWdO-B3MYpMYTiWCqY9JKvPVWGuNPjAAL_uUd36I/edit#){target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"} if I have a specific question and need
feedback," says Stefanie. "It's really helpful."

<figure id="attachment_2698" class="wp-caption alignnone"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2698" style="width: 840px">
<img
src="https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Innovation-Leaders-2020-Notes-Stefanie-Haustein-1024x516.png"
class="size-large wp-image-2698" loading="lazy" decoding="async"
srcset="https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Innovation-Leaders-2020-Notes-Stefanie-Haustein-1024x516.png 1024w, https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Innovation-Leaders-2020-Notes-Stefanie-Haustein-300x151.png 300w, https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Innovation-Leaders-2020-Notes-Stefanie-Haustein-768x387.png 768w, https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Innovation-Leaders-2020-Notes-Stefanie-Haustein.png 1384w"
sizes="(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px" width="840" height="423"
alt="Screen Shot of Stefanie&#39;s open notebook for Innovation Leaders" />
<figcaption>Stefanie and her mentor discuss questions and ideas in an
open notebook.</figcaption>
</figure>

Stefanie sees Open Innovation Leaders as the perfect opportunity to make
progress on the ScholCommLab's [Metrics Literacies
project](http://scholcommlab.ca/research/metrics-literacies){target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"}. The project team is working on developing
open educational resources aimed at improving the understanding and
appropriate use of scholarly metrics in academia.

"We'll use different types of audiovisual media, like stop motion
animation, podcasts, or even video games," explains Stefanie.
"Researchers who are already overwhelmed with keeping up with their own
fields shouldn't have to add to their long reading list. Instead, they
could watch a fun five-minute video and know everything about the
h-index."

The research will involve aspects that are unfamiliar to Stefanie, so
she's grateful for the support. "I'm still an early career researcher,
and Lauren is applying for full professorship now," she says. "It's
really nice to have a senior scholar look over my shoulder and give me
some advice."

While there's still a long way to go in the program, Stefanie is excited
by what she's learned so far. "All of the exercises that we're doing
during the calls and assignments help to shape the project in different
ways," she says. "For example, our team hadn't thought about having a
vision statement, because that's not something that's usually put into a
research project, per se. But I think it's really helpful."

<figure id="attachment_2706" class="wp-caption alignnone"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2706" style="width: 908px">
<img
src="https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Roadmap.jpg"
class="size-full wp-image-2706" loading="lazy" decoding="async"
srcset="https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Roadmap.jpg 908w, https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Roadmap-300x122.jpg 300w, https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Roadmap-768x313.jpg 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 908px) 100vw, 908px" width="908" height="370"
alt="roadmap of metrics literacies" />
<figcaption>A roadmap of the next three months of the Metrics Literacies
project, by Stefanie Haustein</figcaption>
</figure>

Her latest assignment was to develop a roadmap, a path to understanding
the problem and how she can solve it. "Looking at the project again and
again, from different perspectives with different questions, is really
making it better," she says. "It feels more solid."

As she moves into her sixth week in Open Innovation Leaders, Stefanie is
already thinking about how she could use the strategies she's developed
in future projects. "I think the program offers a nice scaffolding to
approach something new," she says. "It's a great way to move beyond the
research and think about the bigger picture."

***To find out more about Open Innovation Leaders 2020,*** [***check out
the program
webpage***](https://elifesciences.org/labs/ea8e2f51/introducing-innovation-leaders-2020){target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"} ***or follow along at*** [***Stefanie's open
notebook***](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SmcHWdO-B3MYpMYTiWCqY9JKvPVWGuNPjAAL_uUd36I/edit#){target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"}***. ***


Stefanie Haustein was scrolling through her feed when she stumbled on it. A tweet from eLife Innovation promoting a program called “Open Innovation Leaders.” It promised design thinking, open communications, and sustainability—all with only a two hour per week time commitment. Intrigued, she clicked through. Three months later, Stefanie is five weeks deep into what is fast becoming a favourite part of her work week.

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